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Lawmakers are raising concerns about what they believe is a lack of transparency in Missouri’s nearly two-year old private school tax credit program. The administrator of the MOScholars program, State Treasurer Vivek Malek, says the criticism is misplaced, arguing lawmakers are making overly broad requests for data in a manner that is taxing the small […]

The post Missouri treasurer pushes back on legislative criticism of MoScholars data transparency appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The Missouri Senate Judiciary Committee briefly debated a House crime bill Monday that mirrors legislation vetoed by Gov. Mike Parson last year. The sponsor of the bill, Republican state Rep. Lane Roberts of Joplin, said he crafted the bill to update Missouri criminal law in multiple ways while avoiding the veto that befell last session’s […]

The post Missouri Senate committee debates wide-ranging crime legislation appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is seeking to squash a nearly eight-month-old program that has waived $1.2 billion in student loans for 153,000 borrowers and limited the payment amounts for 8 million others.  He is joined by the attorneys general from Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Dakota, Ohio and Oklahoma in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in […]

The post Missouri Attorney General leads coalition challenging Biden student debt relief appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri thinks he’s found a path for stalled tax legislation that would temporarily expand the child tax credit and restore business tax breaks that are expired or have sunset under the 2017 tax law. Hawley’s idea is to attach the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act to the tax bill […]

The post U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley proposes adding radiation exposure bill to stalled tax package appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Countless times, Kenda Sutton-El, a Virginia doula, has witnessed her Black pregnant clients being dismissed or ignored by clinicians. One woman was told by doctors that swelling, pain and warmth in her leg was normal, despite warning the clinicians that she had a history of blood clots. Sutton-El urged her to visit the emergency room. […]

The post To close racial gap in maternal health, some states take aim at ‘implicit bias’ appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republicans are returning from a two-week recess Tuesday with an even slimmer majority and the potential looming chaos of a second speaker fight in less than a year. Hours before recess began on March 22, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia filed a motion to vacate the U.S. House speaker’s office, threatening to […]

The post Republicans return to D.C. amid dwindling majority, suspense over House speaker post appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A St. Charles County judge found no “compelling justification” to seal a congressional candidate’s lawsuit against a political opponent who published 14-year-old court records of a domestic violence incident. On Friday, Circuit Judge Christopher McDonough unsealed state Rep. Justin Hicks’ lawsuit against Max Calfo, who is running for Hicks’ seat in the Missouri House, and […]

The post Judge unseals GOP legislator’s lawsuit against rival who published court documents appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Editor’s note: This is the fourth installment of an occasional States Newsroom series called When and Where: Abortion Access in America, profiling individuals who have needed abortion care in the U.S. before and after Dobbs. The first installment can be found here, the second installment is here, and the third is here. Kelly Shannon was […]

The post Fatal anomaly exception didn’t spare Alabama mom who needed an abortion appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Donald Trump’s view of absolute immunity for actions he took as president would radically change U.S. democracy and give presidents unprecedented power akin to monarchs rather than elected leaders, U.S. Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith wrote in a reply brief to the U.S. Supreme Court late Monday. Smith’s 66-page brief, answering Trump’s argument to […]

The post Trump immunity claim a ‘radical’ departure from democracy, special counsel Jack Smith says appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — During a speech in Madison, Wisconsin on Monday, President Joe Biden touted his administration’s efforts to provide student debt relief through several new proposals, such as canceling accrued interest. “While (a) college degree still is a ticket to the middle class, that ticket is becoming much too expensive,” Biden said. “Things are a […]

The post In Wisconsin, Biden underlines plans to help college students with ‘unsustainable debts’ appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump announced a shift in his views on abortion laws Monday, releasing a video advocating for state legislatures to make those decisions, not Congress — and was immediately met with strong criticism from an influential anti-abortion group that said it should remain a national debate. “My view is now […]

The post Trump says abortion policy should be left to the states, backing away from national ban appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Veterans John and Kara Grady received a Facebook message last week from a man who was, “looking for a female veteran to be part of our dispensary license.”  Being a veteran is one of the seven categories that makes people eligible to win one of the state’s social-equity marijuana licenses, called “microbusiness licenses.” The other […]

The post State warns social-equity marijuana license applicants of ‘predatory practices’ appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The Missouri Farm Bureau would be allowed to sell health insurance plans that skirt certain federal regulations under legislation critics worry could leave consumers without proper protections or adequate coverage. The bill, which has already cleared the Missouri House and is awaiting a committee hearing in the Senate, allows health plans that don’t follow the […]

The post Bill would exempt Missouri Farm Bureau health insurance plans from federal rules appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Monday will announce the rollout of a student debt forgiveness proposal that the White House believes is narrowly targeted enough to survive legal challenges. The plan, if finalized, would include a one-time cancellation of all accrued interest for 23 million borrowers. It would also cancel the full amount of […]

The post Biden proposes new student debt relief plan for millions of borrowers appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A wide-ranging investigation into allegations of misconduct by the leader of the Missouri House appears to be escalating, with three more hearings scheduled this week. The House Ethics Committee has already met eight times since the beginning of March as part of its inquiry into the actions of Speaker Dean Plocher. Last week, a six-hour […]

The post Dean Plocher ethics probe picks up steam as legislative session enters final weeks appeared first on Missouri Independent.

People with drug felonies on their criminal record are uniquely excluded from receiving benefits in Missouri from Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, after they are released from prison. This deprivation of SNAP benefits is solely because of their categorization as a former drug felon. This treatment of people charged with drug […]

The post Repealing Missouri ban on food stamps for people with drug felonies would improve public safety appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Joe Biden has a problem. Seven months ahead of the presidential election, some progressives, young voters and Muslim American voters are showing serious reservations about the Democrat’s reelection campaign as his administration backs Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. “For some of those people — maybe a critical number — what’s happening in […]

The post Israel-Hamas war sets progressive and young voters on collision course with White House appeared first on Missouri Independent.

WASHINGTON — Many U.S. taxpayers in a dozen states for the first time can electronically file their federal returns directly to the Internal Revenue Service for free — but critics insist the new federal benefit is not needed and will even harm both users and states. More than 50,000 taxpayers in Arizona, California, Florida, Massachusetts, […]

The post The IRS is testing a free method to directly file taxes. But not everyone is thrilled appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Attempts to create tax credits for child care related causes continue to be at a roadblock because of challenges from Freedom Caucus members in the Missouri Senate. Legislation ponsored by Sen. Lauren Arthur, a Kansas City Democrat, would create several provisions aiming to offer tax credits related to childcare services. The bill would offer the […]

The post Child care tax credit bills face continued Freedom Caucus opposition in Missouri Senate appeared first on Missouri Independent.

The Royals and the Chiefs had everything. Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce — fresh off of a Super Bowl victory — endorsed a “yes” vote in ads airing on TV and on YouTube. Endorsements rolled in from the city’s top political players: Mayor Quinton Lucas (belatedly), U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver and nearly every union in […]

The post What the KC stadium tax defeat says about teams, their subsidies and Jackson County voters appeared first on Missouri Independent.